Dubai International Airport named busiest for second year

Time Out has information on Dubai International Airport being named the busiest for second year running. Plus get more details on how it compared to Heathrow

By
Leah Simpson
12 January 2016

Dubai has been named the busiest airport in the world for the second year running, with it estimated the number of passengers grew to 70.96 million in the first 11 months of last year.

While calculations for December are yet to be determined, a whopping 371,103 aircraft movements were recorded in that same period of time and on average there were 6.5 million people passing through each month.

Excluding December, an astounding 2,287,167 tonnes of cargo were handled at Dubai International Airport.

Dubai Airport experienced its busiest weekend ever last month when many residents jetted out of the city in time for the festive season.

In July it was reported that passengers had increased by 16 per cent (year-on-year from for June) and in March plans for the airport security process to be reduced to seconds was introduced.

The Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS) works by collecting information on flight connections to 149 cities, tracking the movements of those to board an aircraft and deciding whether they have clearance to join the flight or not.

It’s a system that will actually increase security but make travelling easier for those going to or from Dubai.

APIS wants to get through 400 passengers per hour by launching the system, which would mean removing items like laptops, phones and watches are a thing of the past.

The average number throughout the industry is 200 to 250 per hour while they are currently ahead with 300 people per hour.